CFL: Montreal Alouettes hire Dan Hawkins as head coach

The Montreal Alouettes introduced Dan Hawkins as their new head coach at a Tuesday press conference.

By:Sean FarrellThe Canadian Press, Published on Tue Feb 19 2013

MONTREAL—Once again, general manager Jim Popp went outside the box to find a head coach for the Montreal Alouettes.

On Tuesday, the CFL club hired Dan Hawkins to replace Marc Trestman, who was named the Chicago Bears head coach last month. Hawkins, 52, arrives in Montreal with no previous Canadian football coaching experience.

But back in 2008, Popp raised eyebrows when he hired Trestman, who came to the Alouettes with no previous CFL coaching experience as well as having never been a head coach. Over five seasons, Trestman compiled a 59-31-0 record, won two Grey Cups and was named coach of the year in 2009.

“It just came together that Dan was the right guy as we went through the process,” said Popp. “We got some very high-profile people call on his behalf and there were probably two or three candidates that never said anything negative about somebody, and he was one of them.

“You don’t get those type of people calling for you unless you’re the real deal, and he’s proven he has been the real deal. He’s a quality, quality head-coaching prospect and we’re going to give him that opportunity.”

Hawkins wasted no time trying to fit into his new surrounding, giving his opening remarks in tortured but earnest French. But there was no denying Hawkins’ enthusiasm for his first pro head-coaching job.

“You look at when you were a kid out in the yard playing football and you started making up these other rules that made the game more fun and more exciting. You’ve got a lot of that in the CFL,” he said. “I mean, everybody’s in motion.

“In the States, you’ve got one guy in motion. You’ve got a wider field so you’ve got more space. They’re talking about widening the NFL field right now to kind of eliminate some of the collisions. All that’s exciting.”

Hawkins takes over a Montreal team that finished atop the East Division with an 11-7 record last year. But the Alouettes lost 27-20 to the Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts in the conference final.

Hawkins spent the last two seasons as a college football analyst for ESPN, but has worked as head coach at Boise State and Colorado. Hawkins was just 19-39 at Colorado but an impressive 53-11 at Boise State and has an overall record of 112-61-1.

“I’ve always been sort of an out-of-the-box guy,” said Hawkins. “You can just be as creative as you really want to be and that’s fun from a coach’s standpoint.”

Popp spoke to over 50 coaching candidates during his search and involved veteran quarterback Anthony Calvillo in the process. Calvillo, who is entering his 20th CFL season and 16th with Montreal, spoke to all of the hopefuls.

“I had a great conversation with all of them and said, ‘There’s not one that stands out over the other,’ because this is not what I do,” pro football’s all-time passing leader said. “This is the first time I’ve been involved in terms of speaking to a potential head coach.

“All I did was just speak offensive philosophy and we left it at that.”

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